Soft Linzer Cookie Dough

Our answer

Nigella's Linzer Cookies (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) have a dough made with flour, sugar, ground nuts and butter. The dough is more tender than an all flour cookie dough and the dough should form a soft ball once mixed together. The dough should firm up once it is formed into discs and refrigerated.

Nigella's dough is made with butter and we have not tried it with margarine. However we would mention that it could depend on the type of margarine used. Some are sold in tubs or containers and are soft when cold, so that they spread easily from the fridge. Unfortunately if this type is used then the dough will be too soft as the margarine does not become much firmer when it chills. If you were to use margarine then it would need to be the block type that is firm when chilled and may be labelled as "for baking". You can try rolling out the softer dough after chilling but roll it out in between two sheets of baking parchment (parchment paper) and you may need to dust the paper with extra flour as well. Also the dough will likely soften quickly as it is worked so you may need to put the dough back in the fridge once it is rolled out, to let it firm up again before you cut the cookies out. The texture of the baked cookies could be different as well, as soft margarines have a higher water content than butter or baking margarines.